We arrived in Paris just after 9pm on Monday. For some reason I developed the mother of all headaches on the way, and by the time we got to the hotel I could barely keep my eyes open for the incredible pain in my head.
Since I still had a lingering headache when I woke up on Tuesday the first thing we did was find a pharmacy (brilliant Kimberly forgot to bring the little pouch with the painkillers, bandaids, etc.). then, after we got a definite "non" from the guy working at the metro booth when we asked, "parlez vous anglais," we proceeded to use hand gestures to buy subway passes for three days!! Actually, it wasn't THAT bad, since Rene took French in school and could muster up enough recollection to know how to get our point across! Of course I took Spanish in school, and besides, whenever I try to remember anything in Spanish it all comes out in Dutch, so I was no help whatsoever! It did help me realize just how much Dutch I have learned in comparison to languages that I don't know (like French)!
We started off the week thinking that we'd maybe pay to go inside a cathedral or museum or up the Eiffel tower, but as the week progressed we decided to strictly see all the outside (free) things that Paris had to offer! We did pay for a boat tour of the Seine, and we almost went up the Eiffel Tower, but I guess the Dutch side of us just decided there was enough to see in Paris without having to pay extra to see the inside of things!
On Tuesday we went to a considerable number of places. We got a quick breakfast in the middle of the city, but my first Parisian croissant was a disappointment- it wasn't baked all the way through so the middle was all doughy! That didn't diminish my excitement of my first day in Paris, though! We wandered over to the Notre Dame Cathedral for the first (of many) times, but experienced our first, "nah, it's not worth it to stand in line and pay money" moments when we decided not to go in. My friend Rachael just told me today that the circular staircase inside made her want to throw-up, so I figure it was a smart decision not to go inside. We took our boat tour up and down the Seine, which was great for me because the tour pointed out all the famous places along the river, most of which I had never heard of. However, the pamphlet was more help than the tour guide because her French accent was so strong that I could barely understand a word she said! Poor girl, she tried hard! I feel for her! We then walked through the Louvre grounds to see the cool pyramids, and we saw them cleaning the glass on the outside with this weird robot-like machine. At that point we thought maybe we could go inside if it ended up raining at all, but it never rained so we never went inside.
We continued along through the parks to the Place de la Concorde to see the obelisk and where apparently a whole lot of people, including Marie Antoinette, were beheaded. As we were crossing the street, we found ourselves with an English speaking tour group, and the guy pointed out the hotel there which happens to be the most expensive hotel in Paris. We wandered over there to find a whole lot of photographers sitting on the ground waiting for something or someone. I had to go to the bathroom at the point, so I though I would try seeing if I could go in the hotel, since that's what I used to do in New York. I figured, even if it's not technically "allowed," I'll just walk in with confidence, like I knew what I was doing and belonged there, and no one would say anything. The most expensive hotel in Paris is NOT like New York hotels, however, as I was stopped at the door and told that the hotel is "private." That's ok, though, because as I was heading to the bathroom that was supposedly in the metro stop but ended up not being there, Rene stopped to take a picture of the headquarters of the FIA, which is the governing body of Formula 1. He had to be quick, though, because some security guards started heading in his direction, so he didn't stay around long. We weren't really sure of what we were photographing, though, other than the fact that it said FIA on the door, but we saw on CNN back at the hotel that all the photographers were waiting for Max Mosely and everyone else as they were meeting about the diffuser issue for F1 cars this season!! (if you don't follow F1, just nod your head and smile!)
We wandered around the area, getting grumpy because we were getting hungry- turns out the most expensive hotel in Paris doesn't have a lot of great dining in the neighborhood- and we got so desperate that we ended up in some strage cafe-like place where Rene got hotdogs and fries, I got a club salad with more salad dressing than in a Paul Newman salad dressing bottle, and we watched horse racing on the big screen with all the old French men.
From there we went over to the Champs Elysees, which is the famous wide street with all the name-brand shops. I was looking for a tote bag of some kind because in my packing efficiency I neglected to bring anything that we could lug our stuff around with us all day long. We went into a gazillion shops looking for bags but didn't find anything. It was really nice, though, to see so many familiar store names that I haven't seen in ages because we don't have them here in Holland (well, at least not in Leiden . . . ) And I dragged Rene into the McDonalds to find out if the "Quarter Pounder with Cheese" is really called a "Royal with Cheese" as John Travolta said in Pulp Fiction, and it WAS!!!! Very exciting since in Holland they're still called "Quarter Pounders." The Arc de Triomphe is on that street so we got to see that, but when we went underneath to try to go to the top and found that it was 9 euros a person, we had our second reaffirmation of our "who needs to see the inside/top of anything" philosophy.
We picked a great time to be heading over to the Eiffel tower because it was just about dusk and the Eiffel tower was lit. It was much MUCH better looking all lit. I was sorely disappointed when we saw the Eiffel tower for the first time from the tour boat- it looked so industrial and . . . brown! I had always thought it was black! But at night you can't tell because the lights make it look sleek and elegant. It also has small flashing lights all over that make the tower glitter for a few minutes every so often. It was beautiful, but when Rene tried to take a video of it to show everyone, the light reflected strangely and it looks more like a meteor shower come down! We WERE going to go up the tower, but it was already 10pm and it closed at 11pm, so we figure by the time we stood in line, bought tickets, and then stood in line to go up, we wouldn't have any time at the top. We put it off for another day and headed back to the hotel . . .
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